Undercharged postage on item what to do

[hazchem]

I've sold some cups for £1.50. I put the postage as £3.50. I have just come back from post office who have said £8.80!!! I've looked online and the cheapest postage i can get is 4.98. So after fees and charges I end up paying to send some one some cups.

What I would like to do is contact the buyer and explain the situation and then refund them the money and give the cups to a charity shop.

Is this the best thing to do? What else can I do. I'm very new to ebay so only have 18 feedbacks.

Very difficult - techincally you SHOULD sell them for the price agreed after all the buyer (if anything like me) decides whether to buy by adding up the cost of the product AND postage.

They will be quite within their rights to leave bad feedback.

I think I would have been tempted to say I had knocked the box off the side when packing and smashed them and refund!!

I think in this case, it is really all your fault and you just have to suck it up and send them anyway. A learning point for next time. I've done it a few times when I have underestimated postage, to keep my good feedback.

Yeah ive done it too - when my profit ended up being pretty dismal for some of the boys old toys - tbh you need to mark it up a bit more than that though anyway as if its eaten ALL your profit with such a small postage difference you cant have allowed for wrapping materials and the time it takes (which is only fair)

I tend to wrap and weigh before listing now.

Technically you should just send them no matter what it has cost you to post, you have made the mistake of underestimating the postage - that's not the buyers fault!
But I would agree with LEMONAIDE and say you had smashed them and refund if it is not worth your time/money to post them with a loss to you.
But beware, that if you do that, the buyer may well leave you negative feedback for that.

I think you need to send them. This has happened to me before and I was annoyed but sent the item anyway.

I guess it depends on which is worse for you the small loss or the potential bad feedback.

I know I have to send them. I'm just gutted it's going to cost me so much. I should never of put them on ebay.Arrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhh

Can't say I smashed them. I'm dreadful one for guilt. :) Oh and a terrible liar even in email

I've contacted then saying I'd like to refund them but if they would still like them I'd like to send via courier and it will take a day or so to get it sent out.

I'm an idiot!

Have you checked the price of sending them with 'collect+' (if you have a shop near you)?

Mogs Thanks yes that would have been a fiver. But I've found where the closest one is so will use it for an item ending tonight.

Update Buyer has contacted me and said I could refund her. So I have done that. I know she still might leave negative feedback which would be a bummer but at least I have asked her what she would prefer.

Thanks all for your advice. I'm find this forum really helpful.

It happens to us all at some point - like I say I made 80p profit once on some toys that were a real hassle to package and send as the postage was more than expected.

I also bought a handbag once and the seller said to me "oh I was hoping it would go for more than that"

Wrap and weigh using the kitchen or bathroom scales before hand next time and you can find all the postage price info you need on the royal mail website.

I think I weighed it but not the packaging and as mostly I've sold clothes in those thing plastic bag the packaging weights nothing. But I had to add loads of stuff to make them safe and that pushed it up to a parcel.

The guy at the Post office was really nice and has given me a proper postage guide and stuff.

Weighing without the packaging is EXACTLY the same mistake I made!

Don't forget Royal Mail have put their prices up. I listed stuff last week and used the ebay price finder for the postage. A lot of my stuff I had undercharged for going by the prices ebay told me. So I don't think they have updated their postage checker.